subcluster with other varieties such as Koyra Koorete, Gidicho and Kachama. According to Bender 1976, Zargula Zergulla is a dialect of Zayse.
“Zayse” has a number of alternate spellings. Both the speakers of this particular Ometo variety and the speech variety itself have generally been referred to as “Zaisse” or “Zayse” in the literature. “Zaysete”
is the name that the Zayse people themselves use for their mother tongue Siebert and Hoeft 2002. During this survey, “Zaysete” was the word they used to refer to their own language. Common spellings
are as follows: Zaysitè Hayward 1990, Zaysse Teferi et al. 2005, Zayise Hirut Beyene, personal communication, December 2004, Zaisse and Zaysse Bender 1976. As a word of note, Zayse is not
related to Saysay. Saysay is an alternate name of Gumuz Unseth 1990.
According to Wondimu 2006, there is some disagreement over whether the Zayse people can be considered part of the Gamo ethnic group. Some do consider them to be Gamo, based on the perceived
intelligibility of their speech variety with those of their South Gamo neighbors who call themselves “Gamo”. There are also strong historical ties between the Zayse people and the people who identify with
the Gamo ethnicity. However, the Zayse consider themselves to be an ethnically separate group. Linguists who have studied their speech variety have also identified it as being linguistically distinct
Bender 1976.
Zergulla, with alternate spellings and names of “Zergula” Teferi et al. 2005, “Zargula” Hirut Beyene, personal communication, December 2004 and “Zergullinya” Lewis et al. 2015, is classified as
one of two main dialects of the language Zayse-Zergulla Lewis et al. 2015. Zayse is considered to be the other main dialect.
Zergulla is also classified as an East Ometo speech variety Fleming 1976a. In the 1994 Ethiopian census results Office of Population 1998, the mother tongue speakers of the Zergulla speech variety are
reported as much higher in number than the people in the Zergulla ethnic group. Wondimu 2006 theorizes that this is the result of indecision over what they should declare as their ethnic identity. It
seems that it is more likely for Zergulla people to claim Gamo ethnicity while still maintaining that their mother tongue is Zergulla.
Zayse-Zergulla is close to the Gidicho dialect of Koorete Lewis et al. 2015.
1.5 Other previous research
Much of the literature about the East Ometo varieties found in this area is focused on Zayse and Zergulla. Hirut 1988 has done some work on the noun morphology of Zayse, and Hayward 1990,
1991, 1996 and 1999 has conducted grammatical studies on Zayse in the course of his work on Omotic classification and East Ometo verb paradigms. Mulugeta Seyoum’s 1988 B.A. thesis on the phonology of
Zayse contains one Zayse wordlist as well as a description of Zayse phonemes. Baye 1994 has done some work on Zergulla morphology. Azeb’s 2007 contribution to the description of Zergulla has also
added to the understanding of East Ometo verb paradigms.
A sociolinguistic survey of Zayse-Zergulla Siebert and Hoeft 2002 was conducted as part of the Survey of Little-Known Languages of Ethiopia S.L.L.E.. The survey was primarily aimed at gaining a
clearer understanding of interrelations between several speech varieties spoken around Lake Abaya and on the inhabited islands of the lake itself. The locations visited were Alge, Arba Minch and Gat’eme on
the western shore of Lake Abaya, and Elgo and Shele Mela west of Lake Chamo. The targeted speech varieties were the following: Baise [bsw], Ganjawle Ganjule [kcx], Gats’ama Get’eme, Kachama,
Gidicho Giddicho, Harro, Haruro [kqy], Zayse and Zergulla.
Besides the above-mentioned research, Hirut 2004 and 2005 and Selamawit 2004 have made recent contributions to the understanding of this area’s speech varieties. They both suggest that the
Ganta variety is East Ometo rather than North Ometo. Together with Wondimu’s 2006 comparison of Gerbansa and Balta to North Ometo varieties, these examples constitute the only literature to date that
looks in detail at the little-known Ometo varieties found north of Zayse and Zergulla. Because the ethnic name “Gamo” includes the Ganta, Gerbansa, Balta and other South Gamo groups, there has in the past
been some confusion over the classification of their speech varieties. Just because North Gamo belongs to North Ometo, it should not be assumed that all the other varieties spoken in ethnically Gamo areas
are also North Ometo.
2 Goals of the research
The main research question of the survey is how a possible language development project in Zayse would relate to neighboring speech varieties. The main concepts involved in addressing this question are
language attitude, language vitality and intelligibility. The objectives pertinent to these concepts include investigation of the following in the Zayse-Zergulla and South Gamo areas.
•
multilingualism, language use, language attitudes, language vitality and attitudes to language development among speakers of the Zayse, Zergulla, Ganta, Balta, Gerbansa, Shara, Zegetse and
Mele speech varieties •
degree of comprehension between the above-named varieties •
degree of lexical similarity between the speech varieties in this area, including North Gamo, which is used as a language of wider communication
Additional observations were made on the second language proficiencies of people in the Zayse- Zergulla and South Gamo areas.
The remaining sections of this paper present the following: 1.
Methodology used to answer the above research questions 2.
The test results 3.
An analysis of the data 4.
The conclusions reached by the research team 5.
Recommendations for language development
3 Methodology
Three different methods were used to accomplish the research goals. The procedures, data sources and analysis techniques for each are described below.
3.1 Procedures
